Any team can win at anytime: Tendulkar

Wary of the fact that a T20 game can produce "funny results", Sachin Tendulkar isn't being complacent after the 92-run thrashing his team, the Mumbai Indians, gave the Kolkata Knight Riders in their first match in IPL 2009.

That match was in Port Elizabeth on Monday. The return match is at East London on Friday.

"Look, any team can start winning at any stage in the tournament and, so, we'll do what we should be doing instead of looking at the Knight Riders' position (at the bottom) in the league table," Sachin was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

"Obviously, we don't want the Knight Riders to start their winning run against us, but anything may happen in T20..."

"We'll prepare well and then take things as they come... I'm not despondent that we lost a close match (to the Kings XI Punjab) last night... We'd only been a shot or two away from winning."

In Sachin's opinion, the "very nature" of a T20 competition meant that the tournament would be "rather open".

Looking to "prepare well", the Mumbai Indians squad, except for the key bowlers, had a full-fledged practice session in the afternoon.

The Knight Riders had an optional nets session, which was attended by captain Brendon McCullum and predecessor Sourav Ganguly, among others.

Chris Gayle and Ishant Sharma were the notable absentees.

McCullum said: "We've got no choice but to start winning... There's no option and the boys are aware of that."

For the Knight Riders, Ajit Agarkar could be dropped and the batting strengthened by bringing back Yashpal Singh.